Piercarlo Ghinzani is enjoying his first season as an Auto GP Team Principal. The former F.1 racer answered some questions about his experience so far in the first part of 2013 while he prepares for Mugello. The series, managed by Enzo Coloni, will enter its second half of the season in Tuscany.
Your team has been one of this season's top new entries. What's your impression of the series so far?I found out it's a professional and competitive series. Despite the fact that it's managed by a private entity without support from any manufacturer or institution, it offers Teams and Drivers an excellent package. It's the best alternative before Formula 1. Drivers shouldn't stick to Formula 3 for more than a couple of years, but they should move to more powerful and technically complex cars like in Auto GP.
You have an outstanding experience in motorsports so your opinion is pretty well-regarded. How do you balance the Auto GP offer among the options that young drivers have in front of them in terms of their career?It's the ideal step to make in a driver's career because entering the International Formula 3 season costs about 550.000 Euros and for a similar budget they can go directly to the next step. It costs about half of a Formula 3.5 season and one fourth of GP2. A winning driver in Auto GP can proceed straight to Formula 1 or become a professional GT or Sportscar driver, because he proved he's able to deal with more than 500 horsepower.
This season you relied on young drivers once again. Two top stars of the series are running for Ghinzani Motorsport, Robert Visoiu and Kevin Giovesi. Both of them enjoyed their share of success in GP3 and GP2. What can you tell about them?Robert is 17-year-old and has a great potential. Like all young drivers he still have to learn how to manage the new tires but he has the race pace of a frontrunner and showed to be aggressive enough with his direct rivals. Kevin is an accomplished driver. We already worked with him and he made a giant step from F3 to GP2 when he would have maybe captured better results in Auto GP as demonstrated at Silverstone, building a good base of experience before joining some more experienced contenders.
How do you judge the cost-containment measured adopted by Auto GP?It's definitely the best in business. For a moderate budget, you have an efficient aerodynamic package paired with a powerful, quick and reliable engine and it's a package that all the rival series do not have. I think Auto GP is currently the most convenient option available.Can we say that Ghinzani Motorsport has committed to Auto GP and that your team is going to stay in the series in the next few years?Definitely. After being a driver, I stayed in motorsports as a businessman and I am going to do what I can to continue in Auto GP. So when I relate with my customers I know I can offer an highly-valuable package.
